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Mitigation of the effects of Artificial Blue Light, and how to approach Winter in Northern and Southern Latitudes
🕑 Added 2021-12-25 03:07:28 +0000 UTCThis cannot be understated: there is NO TOTAL ELIMINATION of the harmful effects of artificial blue light. This must be said. However, there are some biohacks you can utilize until you are prepared to change your life or lifestyle to improve your light environment permanently. The primary concern is for people who work tech jobs: in offices, engineers, programmers, designers, traders, etc. Anyone who is spending most of their entire day on screens or technology in general. The primary issue with this is the color temperature of almost every screen is the same as solar noon, so it disrupts your circadian rhythm as well as your melanopsin function. Your eyes and body cannot distinguish artificial light from natural light, so to put it simply, it confuses the entire body. This has a drastic impact on sleep, mental state, physical health (eyes, brain, nervous system, gut, liver, pancreas), mitochondrial function, and can even create related health conditions in and on itself.
The most optimal solution is minimizing your usage to the greatest extent possible. This may include getting a new job if your health conditions are severe enough, there will only be so much you can do to resolve them without optimizing your light and electromagnetic environment. You will optimally want to change your schedule so you are capable of seeing the sunrise at the very least, this should be non-negotiable. Sunrise, midday, and sunset are the most important times of the day for sun exposure to reset all of the functions mentioned above. Take breaks whenever you are able to do so. Some people take smoke breaks, you will be taking light breaks. Actually healthy for you.
You will also want to ensure you finish your work BEFORE sunset. All artificial light and screens should be turned off after sunset. I will include some less harmful lightbulbs options below, especially when I get to the winter section of this article. This is most important if you have sleep issues especially, including insomnia and hypersomnia. These issues are an indication of circadian rhythm dysregulation.
If you work from home on a laptop or smartphone, take them outside into the sun or shade where the light spectrum will be balanced out and more complete than blue light in isolation while inside. Another issue with office jobs is the fluorescent lighting, a double whammy on your health. If you can crack a window or open up the door whether in the office or at home, this would also help to complete some of that light spectrum as well. I personally keep windows and my front door open during the day while working on the laptop or on the phone. Another useful trick is the blue light blocking glasses. You will want to ensure they've been tested with a spectrometer for quality and efficiency, but the most affordable brand is Spectra479 available here. Ra Optics and Lucia Eyes are also excellent quality brands, though a bit pricier. I wear them anytime I use the laptop and whenever I'm not outside on the smartphone. I do not wear them while I am outside under any circumstance unless it is after the sun has set and the streetlights are on. They should especially be worn after sunset to eliminate any present isolated blue light. You may notice improvements within the first week of wearing them, though, for some people, it can take considerably more time.
This especially goes for tech job workers, but you will want to include seafood and/or shellfish in your diet at least once daily. Twice daily if you have any health conditions you are working to resolve. As I've discussed both here and on my Twitter page, the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, is crucial to replenishing in the eyes and thus the rest of the organs that contain DHA in their composition. The artificial blue light and nnEMF destroys the DHA first in the eyes, then the rest of the body, and it is what contributes to the circadian rhythm dysregulation as this DHA is required to properly absorb the light spectrum from sun exposure and to set all peripheral circadian CLOCK genes within every organ of the body. If you are allergic, animal brains are another option for DHA. Fish oils, algae oils, and krill oils are not in the SN-2 position for proper utilization. On this note, cod liver, fish eyes/heads, and fish skin are all some of the highest food sources for vitamin D, as well as mushrooms in general.
And for my winter folks in rough latitudes, you should be going outside at those designated times regardless of cloud cover. Some of the light spectrum still penetrates the cloud cover and your body intuitively knows what time of day it is, especially when circadian rhythm begins to become reset. With that said, there are options to replace the important most important factors to this issue. For anyone outside of the United States, you should be able to find similar options to what I list below.
For the UVB light spectrum, Sperti is the leading brand for this lamp setup. It is high quality and shown to increase vitamin D levels on blood work in studies.
It is currently sold out, but if you would like to go this route, it can be found here: https://www.sperti.com/product/sperti-vitamin-d-light-box/
You can also set up your own UVB light setup. If you look for other options available, the bulb must be within this frequency range for full benefit: 280–315 nm. It is best to get full body naked to expose yourself for a designated time. 10-20 minutes is usually a safe bet, though you may require more or less depending on your skin tone and vitamin D levels. Here are some options for this:
UVB light bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B4ZRXSW
Bulb adaptor to connect bulbs to with reflective mirror: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008B8IU82
Light stand: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HNZJLG4
Goggles to block eyes from damage: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CN6S1HW
I was recently sent a red and infrared light setup to experiment with that I've been enjoying significantly. There is a major application to photobiomodulation and altering your light environment. This is the brand that was sent to me: https://vitalredlight.com/red-light-therapy/
EMR-Tek is another excellent high quality option for red + IR light setup: https://emr-tek.com/collections/red-light-therapy
For your own setup, it is optimal to be within the 400-700nm frequency range for the red light, and the 700nm-1mm frequency range for infrared light.
Portable red light device: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QECAU4
Adaptor for infrared light bulb: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0061MZ4Q6
Infrared light bulb: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N4JE9U6/ https://www.therabulb.com/collections/120-volt-north-america
Try to expose to a full naked body if possible. I get naked with my own setup.
And some additional examples of light bulbs to replace the ones you currently have with:
Nighttime red light bulbs:
Incandescents: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013HIF66O
Amber night light bulbs, less than 1% blue light: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VQM3VC5
Full-spectrum light bulb for daytime use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F8F7XM (less isolated blue light)
Please let me know if you have any questions. This should be most helpful for even the average person who would like to work on improving their light environment, especially in darker and colder latitudes for winter months.
ADDITIONAL SIDENOTE: For 2022, you want to get serious about your sunlight exposure for those who didn’t this year. You’ll want to expose yourself at the key periods mentioned above (only midday solar noon contains UVB for vitamin D production, build your solar callus with sunrise and sunset and eliminate industrialized vegetable/seed oils, you’ll notice you don’t burn during midday sun). This means ALL OF spring and summer, as much as possible during fall, when the sun is most out in northern and southern latitudes. Vitamin D is FAT SOLUBLE and the vitamin D produced by proper sun exposure will last throughout winter. This is how our ancestors did not require vitamin D supplements, aside from the lack of artificial blue light and nnEMF. They also consumed a seafood and grassfed animal protein diet as produce was not readily available year-round at grocery stores. So do what you can this year, let’s start 2022 off on a great note.
As for the red + IR lamp setup, the key time periods would be sunrise to 10-11 AM and sunset from 4-7 PM when red + IR light spectrum is naturally present. You can utilize this lamp setup up to 2 hrs max after sunset if needed.
For the UVB lamp setup, you’ll want to utilize it during midday solar noon so from 11-2 PM is the key time period so it doesn’t disrupt your sleep cycle.
FOR LAPTOPS AND COMPUTERS: download Iris blue light filter software. F.lux does the same for filtering blue light, but does nothing for the screen flicker. Iris eliminates both issues. Iris is also more customizable and has awesome preset options for essentially any context. I use the Biohackers option.
Have a blessed day. Merry Christmas and happy holidays 🎅🏼🥂💗
